Word from the "experts" is the the GMs shot down Dale Tallon's "coach's challenge" proposal and I couldn't be happier. While the idea has been successful in the NFL for years, it just wouldn't work in the NHL game.

Hockey is a game in almost continuous motion. hile the NFL is full of stops and starts between each play, hockey can continue on for long stretches. Would the coach have to wait for a stoppage to issue a challenge on a play? If so, would we then have to rewind the game and start back to the time of the questioned call? It has the potential to be a mess.

For those that would argue that it could be used only for disputed goals as play would be stopped in these instances, there are problems there as well. There just isn't a fair deterrent to keep coach's from disputing anything and everything that happens on the ice. Timeouts just don't carry the same weight in the NHL as they do in football. Some say that the team should be charged a 2 minute minor for delay of game if the play isn't overturned. On the surface, this sounds like a solution; however, too many calls would be upheld, not because the challenge wasn't legitimate, but because of inconclusive replay. I don't think it is fair to assess a 2 minute minor when the coach's only fault may be that the NHL doesn't have good enough replay angles to make the correct call.

At the end of the day, this change would bring more problems than it would solve and I don't see that as a change worth making.

So today we hear that Dale Tallon is pushing the idea of introducing coach’s challenges to the NHL after his Florida Panthers were “robbed” of a victory the other night. He feels that, similar to the NFL, an NHL head coach should be able to challenge a ruling on the ice.

I get that allowing coaches to challenge calls will help the accuracy. But ice hockey is such a game of momentum, I think allowing coaches whose teams are on the ropes the ability to slow things down by challenging a call can be an unfair advantage. I hate to see anything added that significantly slows the flow of the game.

Additionally, the NHL doesn’t have anything that can dissuade a coach from challenging a play. In the NFL, if a coach challenges a play and is incorrect he loses a timeout. While there are timeouts in the NHL, they do not hold the same value in the NHL and I do not believe would be the same deterrent as in the NFL.

The bottom line is that I cannot recall many plays in the playoffs that a coach’s challenge would have changed the course of the Cup victory. A regular season loss for the below average Florida Panthers is nothing anyone outside of Dale Tallon is concerned about. He should be happy they didn’t get the “W.” He needs the highest draft pick he can get, wins aren’t doing the Panthers any good.